27.07.19

Over the last few days, we have been looking at lots of different houses. At first, we were considering staying in an apartment, but it wasn’t like the Russian apartments. Russian apartments are much better because they have a playground and the “courtyard” which is grassier (except for in the winter, and some parts of autumn, and some parts of spring). The apartments here are not like that, so apartments are ruled out

When you are searching for a place to live, you often remember the positives of a place, but not the negatives. You might take one thing you like about one hours, one thing you like about another, and you collect all these things to make an imaginary perfect house, which seems like somewhere you would want to live. Then you look at other houses after that, and since it does not look like your perfect imaginary house, you notice the differences- and all the differences are negatives, so you see so many negatives. At one house we saw, we felt this really good feeling, a sort of peace and joy and comfort. The house is called a Queenslander, which is a style invented in Queensland. It is only one story, but it is lifted of the ground on poles or whatever, so that the area under it can be used as a car park, and there can be a shed, and an outdoor area. Inside, it is very cosy. Robyn and I might share a room. That would work well because we both like art and we could share lots of stationary.

We will just have to wait for a reply.

21.07.19

We went from Tenant Creek to Mataranka. Mataranka is a very relaxing place with lots of tree and huge termite hills. Some of the termite hills are taller than I am! Yesterday we went to a swimming place which was called a thermal pool. It is actually a river, but it was dammed so that you can swim in it. It the evening, we went to this sort of restaurant (you go to a lot of those on road trips).

We met an Aboriginal lady and her name was Vivian. Mum and Dad talked to her, but then I continued talking to her when they had finished. We talked about Jesus. Well, Dad brought up Jesus. He always odes that. Vivian kept mentioning she went to church every Sunday, every Sunday. Dad thinks she was probably Catholic, because she made the cross sign. Orthodox people also make that sign, but there are no Orthodox Aboriginals in Australia. Dad laughed when he thought of the that. Vivian was soon pouring out her heart in what she was saying, I prayed for her, and told Jesus wants to come to us as we are. Vivian told she had a dream of falling off a cliff, as I understood this analogy with a cliff. It does not matter whether you have sinned a little or a lot, if you let go, you fall just as far. Since we can’t climb up, Jesus climbs down an takes us out. Because Jesus comes to us as we are, and if we accept his gift of forgiveness, when Jesus looks at us, he sees someone blameless. It I find I’m holding onto to something that God has already forgave, I remember that. I was always straining my ear to try and understand their accent, because I wasn’t used to it. But it did mean that I was paying even more attention to what she was saying. It was especially hard to understand what her husband was saying, because he was missing most of her feet. Mum and Dad said we needed to go, so we did.

We went to the swimming pool yesterday, as well as today. Both today and yesterday were very relaxing days, for the first half anyway. Nothing much happens in Mataranka. At the shred kitchen for the camping place, there is a rack with brochures, and they have thing you can do in Alice Springs Darwin, Coober Pedy, even in middle of nowhere farm. But there were on brochures for Mataranka. That doesn’t matter, we still have found some things to do. I like the camping kitchen, because you share it with others. That way you get to meet other people, and I am very social so I like that.

Today we had a very quiet morning (well you couldn’t quite say quiet.) Then we went to the market which was actually about to close. There was a book stand. I found an interesting Atlas, which was illustrated and had facts and landmarks which would be hard to research. The book was a little old, but geography doesn’t change much. I was going to buy it, but the Lady said that many people my age were so interested in technology and never spend enough time in books, so I could have it for free. If only she knew how interested I am in books. I don’t really mind though -it did come to my advantage. The books were actually old from the library, so they were trying to sell it so that they could help the library. Mum said to only let her give one away, but I didn’t think of buying the other book with the festivals around the world. I wish I did buy it, but what is done is done. and you shouldn’t look back on your mistakes, once they are forgiven and forgotten (in this case, it was not harmful, so I don’t need do either)

Then we went to this Aboriginal art gallery. I looked at them for a while, and I would have looked longer, but I was tired of standing. I like Aboriginal art, it is so detailed, intricate. Since there was also a cafe nearby, Mum ordered some scones. Dad got stuck behind because he happened to meet someone who waved at him. Then they talked for a while. Patrick stayed there, and we went to the art gallery. Patrick and Dad caught up later. The scones were very good. For some reason, Robyn decided that she didn’t like the cream, so she gave it to Mum instead.

 When we went swimming, I kept going under the water because it is actually a river, so the floor is very interesting. After a while I found a few bright green rocks. Someone said that someone lost their keys in the pool. I looked for a while, and some other people did too, but we couldn’t find them, and the person had given up. Even though there isn’t much of a current, there could have been enough to carry away the keys on the river.

We are staying in Mataranka for one more night, then tomorrow we are going to Darwin. We keep joking that the trip was too short, and I keep saying we need to quickly go to Tully for a detour. Colin Buchanan says it is a very good place in his songs, and we were listening to him a lot in the car. He makes them up faster then I can learn the words. Tully is 3 days drive form here, so it a bit to far for a detour. Besides, we did say we would get to Darwin on a certain day. That day being tomorrow. I’m trying to get my head around it, but it is quite hard to believe.

18.07.19    3500ish km

Today we travelled from Alice to Tennant Creek. The drive was still longer than others, but only half the size of the drive from Melbourne to Adelaide. On the drive, we saw lots of Termite hills. I couldn’t help wondering if they were edible. Well, I already knew they were. It made sense, because there were so many termite hills, and they had so many termites in them that they would make a good meal. I haven’t eaten them yet. Wonder what they would taste like? The termite hills were huge.

In Australia, there is this organisation working with Aboriginal people called “Gods Dreaming”. They have done lots of illustrating in Aboriginal styled painting of the big picture of the Bible. There was a picture of the Tower of Babel. Since Aboriginal people didn’t have a history of big towers, they used a termite hill instead. It makes sense. Some locals decided to put shirts on the termite hills. We thought that was funny, but there might have been something to it.

The termite hills were fascinating, because I knew how many termites lived in them, and it made them seem like cities. And then there were hundreds of cities. Some of them were probably as tall as me!

This night we are staying at a motel. It is owned by some Chinese people, and it was probably recently owned by some other people, because the hotel was called El Dorado, and at the restaurant there was a painting of a cartoon horse with the word Texas on it.

There was a swimming pool we tried to go in, because it is getting a bit warmer over here, and Mum says that Canadians would consider it a hot day. But the swimming pool was freezing, like actually freezing! I decided to jump in, because I prefer to jump in and adjust quickly than just standing there and slowly adjusting .But when I jumped in , I seriously regretted it- it was colder than usual, and a swam really quickly to the edge and pulled myself out. It didn’t go back in after that. We left, because it was too cold. The heat wasn’t that bad, after all.

17.07.19

When we went to the Uluru, at first I wanted to climb it, until I saw it. It looked pretty crazy.It had one fence which you could climb with, and it was pretty steep. I was glad we didn’t get to climb it. A lot of the way around ,the Uluru was surrounded by a fence but at one point, you could touch it. I was very happy that I could actually touch the Uluru. Some pieces of it were actually white chunks, and some patches were salt and pepper colour. It was “discouraged” to take pictures there, but there was no direct rule against it. We got a few photos.

It still bugs me that I don’t know how the Uluru got there. We have a few different theories.

1   1)  It is an asteroid from mars- My theory

2   2)  It is a giant termite nest- My theory

3   3) The aliens that built the pyramid accidentally splattered some material over here on their way to Egypt.- Mum’s theory

4   4) That God was using the rock in his creation to have an impact on the continent somehow- Dads theory

Only the fourth one was taken seriously. All the other ones were jokes because no one was quite sure how it appeared there. Strangely, the rangers didn’t talk about the geology of the mountain. They just talked about all the Aboriginal Mala peoples connection to the Uluru. Not that I wasn’t interested in the culture, I just did want to know about the geology as well.

It took about 3 hours to get there, and 3 hours to get back to the roadhouse.

The next day, we went from the roadhouse to Alice Springs. It is a very nice town, There is also lots of Aboriginal people who live here. Mum spotted out some graffiti that said “White man you surrounded”. Mum assumes this means that the Aboriginal people live on the outskirts all around Alice Springs. We went to this Anzac tower on this hill. It wasn’t that interesting. I was cold. That might have been the last time when I will be properly cold.

At night it was cold, but I didn’t feel it because I was all cosy in my sleeping bag and a nice blanket on top, as well as wearing a jumper and pyjamas. So I wasn’t cold.

Today, we have done a little exploring at two different museums. At the fist one there was this sculpture of a giant bird based off a giant bird skeleton. It looked like a giant dodo, and it was about three metres tall. I don’t think it actually looked like that in real life.

Also on a playground I met an Aboriginal girl named Kineko (I’m don’t know how to spell it) She was shy, but Robyn and I made friends with her. It started with a smile, and eventually she spoke to us, but then she needed to go.

The second museum was better, and there was lots of small sculptures. The was some of the sea floor, from a very very long time ago to present. The oldest one had fish that were very simple ,and had armour. There was also lots of animals there, and I saw an eagle. Eagles are very big (but no where near as big as the giant dodo)

The scientific names of some animals are funny. Ones scientific name sounded very complicated, but it was only a combination of Greek and Latin translating to “duck big duck” I thought that was pretty funny. One rat had the scientific name “ ratus ratus” Lots of the rocks were very pretty as well. We are still staying in Alice Springs. We have slowed down a little because we want to get a good fell of the Northern Territory.

The next morning, I decided to draw some of the plants that I saw, and the sunrise even though it wasn’t quite a sunrise because I came a bit late. Then we were in the desert. It was ridiculously empty. Sometimes we would see a few bushes, and then sometimes we would see the bush-  one bush standing by itself. What really surprised me was that it was not hot, because I thought it was always hot in the desert (except for the night), and it wasn’t quite as sandy as I expected. There was lots of small bushes and scrub called spinifex. I didn’t mind the desert, because I had a very interesting book to read.

The new went to the middle of nowhere. Well, it wasn’t exactly the middle of nowhere, because it was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It was called Coober Pedy, and there was lots of Opal mining there. We got to stay in an underground camping place, which Patrick and Robyn loved, but I wasn’t that excited,. It wasn’t very cosy.

Then we continued our very deserty drive the next morning-today. Mum said it looked like the type of land that of you were stuck in, you probably wouldn’t survive, unlike some places which looked better. It didn’t have enough trees. We needed to stop at any truck stop that we could see, because there was not many, and it was too risky too skip it, even if the petrol was expensive. AND THEN MY BOOK WAS FINISHED! I wish I could keep reading it, but I couldn’t. So I read another book, but this one is harder to read because of its style. Even the font was annoying. The actual story is interesting,though. We listened to Colin Buchanan music in the car because that is what you do when you are in the desert. We have a Kangaroo whistle so that we do not hit any Kangaroos. We would see signs saying to watch out for cows, because there was no fences near the road.

Today, we passed the border between South Australia and the Northern Territory. We tried to cross it all at exactly the same time, but Patrick misunderstood and stepped over the border before us. We pretended it didn’t happen and all went at the same time. I went back and forth across the border just for the sake of it and I lost count of how many times I did. After driving for I while, I saw less spinifex and a little more yellowish grey grass and bushes. There is a little less desert now, but we have still got another day of desert to go. And then we go to the Uluru. (the Ooolooroo)

This trip was much smaller, about 3 and a half hours, but it was still very interesting. I discovered something new yesterday. The princes highway is so big, it has actually reaches South Australia. Sometimes the grass was green, but sometimes it went a little yellowish. I began to see a few small bushes along the way, and the dirt was getting gradually redder. We went past somewhere called Flinders Ranges, which is a mountain range. Sometimes the mountains had a rich green, but then there would be less green. I have a paintings of theses mountains in my sketchbook. When you are travelling on the road, you cant be exact with your pictures. You need to look out the window for a while, and it the landscape doesn’t change for long enough, you draw what it looks like. Make sure you have around the right thickness of trees, and height, but don’t worry too much about their position because that is always changing. My green pencils were running out. Good thing we are going through the desert. That evening, we arrived at Port Augusta. The nature around us was different, but it didn’t make me feel uneasy, it just made me more curious. I would look at all the unusual plants, and stare at the red dirt. Red dirt is the strangest thing, when you think about it, because most of the ground I have seen is brown. Or white, in the winter in Russia. We all worked together to set up the tent, then Mum was cooking dinner while Patrick, Robyn and I played cricket. Patrick was batter, Robyn was bowler and I was fielder because I was the last one to join and I’m good at running.

Once dinner was ready, we were all very happy. After dinner, I collected a few more rocks to hold down the tent pegs because it was very windy.

13.07.19 1200 km.

There has not been much internet. But I have plenty to tell you.

11.07.19

 After going to Hoppers Crossing the real road trip had started. The trip from Hoppers Crossing to Adelaide was our longest drive. We drove all day. By the end of the day, we were pretty tired. The sketch book that Mum bought came in handy. It has 80 pages in it, but in a few days, I’ve already used about 20. That is because there is lots to draw. Driving to Adelaide meant we passed lots of different landscapes. There were a few cows, but after that there were more sheep. Surprisingly, the grass actually got greener, and near the end of thee trip, there was lots of green grass that I didn’t feel like I was in Australia. In those times, there was only a few trees on the horizon and it looked like a fairy tale land, because in Russia there was lots of trees and not as green grass. Near the start of the trip, we saw a rainbow. That whole day, we were driving on the Western Highway (it is a very long highway)

. For lunch, we stopped at a town called Stawell. I knew we had hit the country because the pie place was one of a kind, not some company thing. There was some pretty good pies, and the wall had lots of comments written on it. That was pretty cool. I found a Canadian flag, and a spot where two AFL teams were battling by crossing out and rewriting each other. There was a brochure of what to do in the town and nearby. There were some painted silos you could visit, which we didn’t go to. But even looking at the pictures was pretty cool. There were some silos with Aboriginal women faces on them and a starry night in the background. Another group had some farmers on it. one had a picture of an old wise-looking man. On one page, it had the events happening in the town. A lot of it was accossiated with food. I guess when you live in a town, food must be very entertaining. We passed through a town called Horsham. It takes a lot of effort to pronounce it right.

When we stopped to go to the toilet, there was this big pink lake we could see. It was very pretty, and on the edge of it, I could see some pale sort of blue water. When we were driving, I spotted this tree which had a branch that had leaned over, then it started growing more branches from that branch, and those smaller branches were pointing towards the sky. I don’t remember seeing trees like this before, probably because they don’t get much of a chance to live in the city (if a tree was leaning over to somewhere they didn't want it to, it would look like it wasn't a typical tree and they wouldn't want it). They grow like that because they need sunlight. Then I looked for more trees that looked like that, and found a few more. In the evening I saw a very beautiful cloud which I drew a picture of. God painted it much better, because he is the best painter in the world. Arielle said one time that she saw in a vision God painting the sunset, and then he told her go outside to see it, and it had hardly changed.

When we got to the hotel, it was the same hotel we had gone to before when we went on holidays, and it was coincidentally the same room. God has such a funny sense of humour.

10.07.19
Our house was getting pretty empty, and even living in it made it messy again. You cant pack all the cups, because people still need to have a drink, and when you think you have washed all the dirty laundry, there is still more. Today, in the morning, our house had hardly anything in it.
I went to go say goodbye to my good friend Charlotte, whose sister does athletics and is friends with Amara, Jasmine, and Paris. It just makes the world seem so small. Charlotte lives nearby, so I got to go there by myself. Amy her sister said that their cousins were there and it was not a very convenient time that I came at, but I told her we were moving ,so she told Charlotte to go to the door. Then I said goodbye to her but I did not feel like leaving and there wasn't much to do at our house anyway, so I stayed and talked for a while. Then finally I said goodbye to Amy and Charlotte.
Patrick also wanted to say goodbye to his friend Rushef. Since I had nothing better to do, I went to Rushef's house. Robyn came as well to play with Rushef's sister. The boys played cricket in the backyard, and I played with Robyn and her friend on the trampoline. The only problem was I couldn't jump too high otherwise I would knock them over. Then they went inside and I didn't notice until later. Robyn' friend whose name I never found out had a toy microphone. She said she was really good at swimming, and sang the whole let it go song form frozen, or at least a lot of it.  I was surprised at how much of the song she knew, and she was pretty good at singing for her age.
 Mum and Dad came to pick us up, and then we realised that the house was already locked. I didn't mind, because I had already said goodbye.
We didn't drive much today, but you could say that the road trip had begun.
We drove to the other side of Melbourne, to a place named Hoppers Crossing. One of Dad' friend Daniel let us stay for the night. His wife's name is Fiona, and Mum said that she had never heard of that name until she came to Australia.When we came to their house, their garage was full of (well if four counts) Hawthorn posters. It does make sense though, Daniel is obsessed with footy. At their house, they are looking after two very chatty (they have something in common with me) budgies for a friend. We also went to this nice Pizza place for dinner, because Daniel and Fiona thought that would be relaxing .Because tomorrow will be a very long drive, Patrick drew a huge board of noughts and crosses that has a big noughts and crosses with smaller ones inside those squares and then smaller ones in those ones. You play one game at a time, and the winner then puts their mark on that board which then becomes a symbol for the bigger games, which then goes to an even bigger game. It would take forever, but it would still take up some time so we wont be bored on the trip.
Mum also got me a sketchbook because mine was running out of pages. It was plain black (but that is usually a sign that it is good quality.), so I bought some stickers that you can colour in. I still owe Mum some money, because I left my wallet in the car.
Patrick got a haircut. It looks pretty cool. He likes it because his hair doesn't sit on his forehead. He wont let me post a photo.

09.07.19
Today is our second last day in Berwick. We got to go to an Auskick event. Mum and Dad took us to see it, since Patrick and Robyn love footy. They kicked the parents off the field when their was the footy practice, because otherwise there would be too many people there. But lots of parents considered themselves exceptions and then the field had lots of parents on it. When we went to pick up Robyn, she had already started running towards us because she saw us. We expected her to stay in her age group. It was convenient that we found her like that, but the chances of Robyn getting lost from that were too big.
After that, Patrick got his shirt signed by some footy people. I saw a very very very long line, so I assumed that was the Dustin Martin line, which lots of us were not willing to wait for. Robyn also gto her Richmond hat signed.
We haven't done much cleaning today because Dad says we should take a bit of a break. He says we should try and pack the car. Because we have to pack so much stuff in the car we need to know what fits.

08.07.19
(ignore the date on the top- it is running on another time and I cant fix it. So I will just write the actual date at the top here)
Today has been quite uneventful, but very busy, if you know what I mean. We have to clean the house very well. It can be quite stressful sometimes, and very annoying. Real estate agents are very picky, and want the house to look perfect. We didn't know we needed to take photos of the house when we moved in,so that is a bit of a disadvantage.The house wasn't in very good condition when we came,so it is already in better condition now than it was before.
Mum and Dad said I've been a very big help. Although I've already sorted through my clothes, we still need to get rid of a few more. I know we can replace this stuff in Darwin,but I'm still sad to see so much stuff go.
Lots of people have been quite helpful in cleaning- my cousins, my Aunty, my Grandparents, and some good friends Rob and Teresa, who are returned missionaries from China. I want to thank them very much for their kindness and help.
It feels easier to leave the house behind because it is quite empty. Tonight, the camping begins.
I'm glad we are leaving our house now- when it is empty it is not as appealing. But I will really miss my backyard, where I have played and learned lots from God about who he is. He taught me through nature.
We will be leaving soon.

Our Trip to Darwin

We have not yet started driving, but I can feel that the trip in some ways is already beginning. Our house is almost empty, and the moving truck has already left. The Kent removals came over, picking up our numerous boxes. Some of the stuff will actually be travelling by train. Dad says this is good, because there is less vibration on a train. In some ways, I wish I could also travel by train. The only thing is, the type of train the TV is going on is not the comfiest train. If I could get off at stops, and there was windows, then I might consider it.

It wouldn't be the same as travelling on Russian trains,which are so much better. You can travel on them for days. People built them because Russia is a very big country and it is on land. So a train is a very good way to travel. On the train, you could have plenty of tea, look out the window at the beautiful landscape, and read lots of books.

Unfortunately, we are not travelling to Darwin by train. We are going by car.

The answers people gave me to this idea varied. When I told some people we were moving to Darwin, they would ask if we were going by car, as if this was more practical. 

But some people gave a different answer. On my last week at youth group, the youths prayed for me, and one prayed that the flight would go well. I didn't tell them we were driving until afterwards- I didn't want to interrupt them, but after that I found it hard to focus. At the end I told them we were actually driving, and they were surprised.

The house is getting emptier every day. Almost all my furniture is gone- everything except for my bed. We cannot afford to take our furniture- the only furniture we are taking is Mum and Dad's bed. Tomorrow, The Salvation Army truck will come and pick up all the stuff that we don't need that we haven't managed to sell or give away. Except our bikes.

I was very excited when I found out that our bikes are going to a small African country called Sierra Leone. Since I'm very fascinated in geography (I got that from my Dad), I had already heard of it. From a school project, I know that Sierra Leone actually has the smallest minimum wage- three cents per hour, making them a very poor country. (at least they have a minimum wage)I'm overjoyed to know that our bikes will not be toys, but tools to these people who actually need a bike. The bikes will help them lots.

We have given a lot of stuff away- and it feel good to know we're helping. Dropping stuff of at Savers and in the big yellow bin near the train station is great.

We are leaving the house in a few days. By the end of our stay here, we will almost be camping in the house. Good practice for the trip. :)

We are going through the center of Australia- through Adelaide, stopping at the Uluru, Tennant creek, Mataranka, and a few other places. I told Mum and Dad not to tell me too much, but you pick stuff up anyway. 

It is going to be an incredible adventure.